On Media

Himmelman aims to one-up Woodward

By DYLAN BYERS

04/30/2012 02:04 PM EDT

From my report on the latest developments in Woodward-gate:

Author Jeff Himmelman on Monday strongly defended his bombshell New York Magazine story that calls into question some details of Bob Woodward’s Watergate coverage against attacks from the veteran Washington Post reporter that he failed to include key information that upends the entire article.

Himmelman’s piece is based in part on the discovery of a 1990 interview in which legendary Post editor Ben Bradlee had expressed fears that Woodward embellished certain details of his reporting on the Watergate scandal, including whether a potted plant really was used by Woodward to signal Deep Throat.

In an interview Sunday night with POLITICO, Woodward castigated Himmelman for deliberately not including in his article a 2010 interview in which Bradlee says he’s confident that Woodward didn’t embellish the facts - but Himmelman one upped Woodward on Monday by releasing an even more recent - and damning - interview.

That interview between Bradlee and Himmelman took place on March 9, 2011, just two days after Woodward met with Bradlee and Himmelman at Bradlee’s house to encourage them not to publish the potentially damaging quotes from his 1990 interview.

In the 2011 interview, which Himmelman provided to POLITICO and are included in his forthcoming biography of Bradlee, Bradlee reiterates his initial doubts about Woodward’s reporting.

“I wanted to be crystal clear about it, so I just went ahead and asked him,” Himmelman writes. “‘You said what you said in 1990, and there’s a record of it…’”